Sententing hearing for sadistic serial dog raping killer zoologist Adam Britton in Darwin Supreme Court

**WARNING DISTRESSING** A once respected Australian zoologist and crocodile expert’s defence barrister has told a court his client had been ‘afflicted by a condition since very early childhood’ and it was ‘not his fault that he had that’.

Adam Britton. Photo: Emily Smith for ABC News

A sadistic Darwin zoologist who raped, tortured and killed dozens of pet dogs in his rural area torture chamber is not a psychopath and “will be able to control (himself) in the future”, a court has heard.

Adam Britton returned to the Supreme Court on Thursday for sentencing submissions after pleading guilty to more than 50 animal cruelty charges involving him filming himself engaged in “sadistic sexual violence”.

Crown prosecutor Marty Aust said he tendered a sample of the videos to demonstrate the “entrenched enjoyment” Britton derived from his perverse sexual interest in animals.

“There was significant planning to the extent that it was quite a production, with multiple cameras, tripods, various recording equipment, production values, editing,” he said.

“If you watch that footage you will see the extreme pleasure and enjoyment that this man had in creating this and doing these acts.

“His sheer delight goes to the core of it … it’s difficult to read, it’s difficult to hear but to see it, really is something other.”

Mr Aust said “much like any other human being who has a particular sexual interest” Britton was “able to rationally determine whether to act on that interest”.

“And he has done so and then, with the incitement and the encouragement of other like-minded persons, he has offended in a way that’s almost beyond description in terms of its significant depravity,” he said.

In calling for the maximum penalty of two years in prison per offence, Mr Aust said it was in “the worst category of offending”.

Animal rights activist Jacqueline Clancy outside the court where Adam Britton will now be sentenced in August. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“In many cases it’s possible to imagine some more dire form of offending, frankly, in this case you simply couldn’t,” he said.

“You will be required to constrain, through concurrency, what would otherwise result in just a crushing sentence, your honour, because we’re certainly not asking for 78 years.

“But really two years for each of those offences is just.”

Mr Aust said even if Britton’s zoosadism was treatable “there is still an ever present risk of this continuing”.

But his barrister — who asked not to be named after receiving threats and abuse from members of the public — said Britton was no psychopath and had been able to control his urges in the past.

“If (he’s) been able to control it in the past, he will be able to control it in the future,” she said.

“This is a human being who has been afflicted by a condition since very early childhood … it is not his fault that he had that.

“This particular condition is exceptionally taboo in most societies and the court can and I hope would, accept that that would have been a very difficult thing to grow up with and learn to manage into adulthood.”

Britton’s barrister said while it “may be true at face value” that he could have sought treatment rather than making the choice to offend, he had successfully “put it in a little box in the back of my head and tried not to think about it” for many years.

“It was something that was managed for a considerable period of time and the fact that treatment is not sought is readily explainable by the unusual nature of it and the taboo nature of it and the fact that he appeared to be somewhat successful in keeping it under wraps,” she said.

Britton will return to court for sentencing next month.

Originally published as Sententing hearing for sadistic serial dog raping killer zoologist Adam Britton in Darwin Supreme Court